Read Between the Lines

Chapter 2: Just take what you can get

ANNTONIA's POV

In her opinion, Michelle Dee is a very same kind of egocentric woman specimen. She was self-assured, arrogant, cocky, and believed no one was able to resist her in the whole universe. She heard a lot about her and she knew she was the kind of person who thought herself entitled to a phone number if she dignified someone with her presence and attention but, most importantly, she was now sitting in her reading spot.

You've got to be kidding me!

She saw Michelle's eyes flew to her direction, then proceed to widen in surprise. She really despised the way her lips curved into a smug smile the second her presence registered.

"Hey, Brownie." She called her as she closed the book she's holding with a loud thud. "What a small campus, indeed. I didn't expect to run into you."

She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and couldn't hold the annoyance she had been feeling since she appeared in her sight.

"Funny you should say that. Since you just happened to stumble across my reading spot. What? Are you stalking me now?"

She had often beaten herself up over their last encounter last week, and that's to put it lightly. She couldn't believe she'd been baited like that, that Michelle Dee actually made her believe her when she'd said she wasn't hitting on her. Of course she obviously was. Because if she's a machine, that would be her default setting. She knew better than that.

But still, the girl had that natural charm about her that had fooled her. And she'd made that speech about The Great Gatsby. For just the tiniest second, she'd bought the girl's act about literature small talk. She'd made the mistake of introducing herself and actually going on with that charade because they'd talked about favorite books and she'd made her guess her and she'd gone for the typical favorite book. 1984. Because literature con men were so predictable.

And then Michelle hit her with The Kite Runner. And she had just freaking lost it. It frustrated her to no end that she couldn't read the girl. She had pretty specific ranges for people like her, as well as their egos and their superiority. But the girl fit into none of those. The second she thought she had her placed, the exact second when she thought she had her pegged for nothing more than a dirty womanizer, she just said something that brought her right back to square one. Like how her favorite book was The Kite Runner.

Talk about a book with depth, huh?

But no! She scolded herself. This meant nothing more than the fact that she's just a spoiled child of a public figure, a womanizer with some dirty tricks up her sleeve. The fact that she was surprisingly smart and easy to talk to didn't change that. She was even more despicable because she manage to assess my weakness and use it against me, to pinpoint the spots of lesser defense in my armor and attack me anyway. Which was low for someone like her.

She was a powerful feminist but she wasn't about to praise a woman for showing basic human behavior, for displaying some mildly flattering qualities, especially when she'd used them just to woo her way into someone's pants. She wasn't about to let her play with her head again. And she's sure as hell she wasn't about to let her have her reading spot.

But it wasn't a special spot or anything. It was just a hammock in the back side of a park on campus, near her dorms, and she just loved how it was placed right under a thick acacia tree that provided her with the perfect shade for reading in the afternoons of her free time. From here, she had a good look of the whole campus park while being shielded from view. It became her favorite spot in the whole place then.

And now, her favorite spot had freaking Michelle Dee in it, smirking up at her, the book resting on her chest as she folded an arm under her head lazily.